A Rant About the Improper use of Facebook

16 October, 2008, 2:41 pm

I don’t want to say it again, so just watch the video.

UPDATE: There was a video here where I did two things – First I disparaged the facebook profile of a friend to make a point. I thought it was funny at first, but thanks to Shane (see the comments) I realized it might not be that funny. So now the video is gone.

The other thing I talked about is very relevant! And I stand by this!

I addressed how you need to promote your self NOT your business on facebook.

I see too many facebook profiles that tell me nothing of the person and only information and links about the businesses and affiliate sites a person wants me to visit.

Be real, be honest and be sincere! This will get you far more traffic than being a billboard!

More on that soon in a coming post!

Thanks for bearing with the unusual post edit – normally I avoid that at all costs, but in this case I thought it best to remove the video.
END UPDATE

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Comments
Jenny McCutcheon October 16, 2008

Nice video Jared–I understand where you’re coming from.

Facebook should represent who a person is, rather than what a person is trying to sell. I use Facebook to keep up with my friends and social networks, but I have never visited Facebook and decided to buy something from someone’s profile page.

I do think that companies can utilize Facebook a little differently because people will expect to visit a company’s Facebook page to learn about new products, specials, etc. But for individual Facebook profiles, the personality and interests of the individual should make up 95% of the page. The remaining 5% could probably be used to promote business objectives (when applicable) without being too annoying.

Jared October 16, 2008

Jenny, Thanks for the comment! You are dead on (of course I would say that since you agree with me!)

Have a great day, great blog by the way!

shane October 17, 2008

I would agree that in such an impersonal arena as a social networking application it is annoying to only see one side of someone as you’ve mentioned. Apps like Facebook are great for connecting with people but I think we sometimes loose sight of who all is watching and what message we’re sending.
On the other hand, I also think it’s about as inappropriate as posting a video on a blog which is aimed directly to someone instead of going directly to them and having this discussion…

Jared October 17, 2008

Shane that’s good advice, and something that makes me think -

but for what its worth, this video was never “aimed” at someone. The friend of mine mentioned isn’t even in the online business community (as far as I know) and this video doesn’t really apply – they were only doing something which made me think of an application for blog readers with very different motivations.

All the same I appreciate your comment, and will consider how to respond.

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